A Week of Recovery After The Bank Dramas 3-24-23

 The major indices recovered from last week's bank drama selloff. The tech-heavy NQ lead the pack again. It stayed above the 200 WSMA. SPX and YM closed right below the same WSMAs. They reclaimed their 200 DSMAs except for the small-cap. RUT has many small and medium-sized banks. FOMC generated some volatilities. The rate hikes are close to the end. There is more clarity from the Fed for now. 

This week, the IB Netliq is up 14% from 223K to 260K. It's a new high for the last 3 years. VIX is down about 10% from 25.8 to 23.4. The leverage is also down 18.5% from 172 to 140. The realized P/L is $42.3K. The collected premiums are $7.9K. I was lucky to hit BF hedges every day with the -1+1 rule. I reduced the SPX C from 10 to 4, and P from 6 to 4. The RUT positions are C-1 and P+1. I was quick in adjusting deltas which paid off. The market's rangebound helped too. 

The two small accounts performed well too. These ITM positions were unwinded. TOS collected $3K with the BF hedges mainly. IBP got $3.9K cash. I traded 0 DTE on Thursday. I failed to enforce my S/L rules again. It was only exited in TOS on Friday. That caused a missed BF opportunity today. 

Lessons Learned:

1. My daily meditation helps keep me calm. It reduces my stress during work. 

2. I checked my expiring positions every day this week. 

3. I must enforce the stop-loss rules if I want to trade 0 DTE again. 

4. The BF hedge works in the current market conditions. It may stop working when and if the market condition changes. I must prepare for it. 

5. Keep my current position under control. Don't adjust positions often. Act like a sniper.   

The Bank Drama Continues 3-17-23

 The regional bank fallout dominated the market this week. Credit Swiss and two US regional banks got into trouble. The major indices closed with mixed results for the week. DJ and RUT are down. NQ and SPX are up. The tech-heavy NQ surprisingly performed the best. I am trying to figure out what the reasons are. FOMC will be the focus of next week. There could be more bad news from banks. It will be another volatile week. 

The IB Netliq is up 12% from 197K to 223K. VIX is slightly up from 24 to 25.8. The leverage is down 16% from 205 to 172. The realized P/L is $21.9K.  The collected premiums are only $1870. I didn't see an SC ITM right above a BF that caused a $4000 assignment last Wednesday. I even checked my IB position list but didn't see it. The open options' value is down 18% from 300K to 277K. It was a better week overall. 

The two personal accounts are still in the mud. I am getting close to unwinding the ITM positions from the week before the last. TOS only added $100 for the week. It's a total waste of time. IBP had two successful BFs this week. It collected $1.9K for the week. 

Lessons Learned:

1. My portfolio heavily depends on market movements. The ultimate solution is to eliminate these longer-term ITM positions. I must keep this goal in mind. 

2. I followed the -1+1 rule this week. It was too volatile to trade the 10+5 BF as planned. 

3. Patience and Time are my constant goals.       

An Eventful Week Of Selloff 3-11 -23

 It was an eventful week. Jey Powell testified in both Senator and House. He sounded a bit more hawkish. The inflation data was persistently high. The troubled Silicon Vally Bank caused a panic selloff in the financial sector. It dragged the broader market down on Thursday. Friday's NFP number is better than expected. It's another inflationary factor. The major indices booked the worst week so far in 2023. The March Madness seasonality is in play now. We are likely in a period of volatility until CPI, and FOMC settles down. The major indices are below their 200 DMA. Overall, the market is in a bearish mood. 

The IB Netliq is down 13% from 249K to 197K. That includes the 20K loan paid back to ETQ. The leverage is up 27% from 149 to 205. The VIX is up 19% from 19.4 to 23.9. The realized P/L is -$7K. There are $4,640 premiums collected plus about $1K of interest. The open options' value is up 11% from 267K to 300K. I underestimated the risk of J.P. and SVB. 

The two personal accounts could have performed better too. I couldn't exit the ITM BF positions. TOS collected $790. IBP got $540 for the week. The total collection is only $1,330.  I will reevaluate if the BF hedge strategy suits my smaller personal accounts. It may work in low volatile conditions. 

Lessons Learned:

1. I must adjust my delta positions more aggressively when the volatility increases. I reduce one SPX on each side and one RUT P at the end of this week. It wasn't enough to avoid a red warning. I will reduce my exposure more next week.     

2. Trade the price actions and levels objectively. Hope is not a trading strategy.

3. Be patient. Wait for the levels and time frames. 

4. I will reduce the BF hedges in the small accounts. 

5. I may expand the BF strategy from 10X to 15X in IBQ. Expand 1K and 0.5K on each side. Therefore, at least one of the two will be out the next day. It will be a minimum of $500 realized gains the next day. It has to follow the rule of -1+1. 

The Week Of Turn Around 3-3-23

 All the major indices had a positive week. SPX retested its 200 DSMA and bounced from there. RUT didn't even come to its 50 DSMA. It held better than the others. The sentiment turned positive. The daily downtrend is still intact for SPX. The majors closed below their 20 DSMA. Seasonally the first half of March can be volatile. It's something to keep an eye on. 

IB Netliq went up 10% from 224.7K to 249.7K. It's a new high for the last 2 years. The leverage was reduced from 174 to 149. VIX is below 20 at 19.4 now. The open options' value is also down 7% from  286K to 267K. It's the lowest level for 2023 so far. The realized P/L is 63K for this week. It covered the 15K loss of last week. The premiums collected are $4.2K. Most of it is from the BF hedges. I had to skip one day's BF hedge based on the -1+1 rule. It was a good week overall.  

The two personal accounts worked with the BF hedges. The TOS account collected $3.2K cash. The IBP got $3.3K cash. The total is $6.5K. The hedges in both accounts got ITM with the rally today. I will have to unwind the two positions next week. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. The BF hedges continued to generate most of the income for the week. I followed the -1+1 rule most of the time. I should have applied the rule strictly on Thursday's reversal. I had one side that didn't exit.

2. I watched the number of positions closely. It's the mean of risk control. The week ended with one more SPX SP and one more RUT SC. I will resolve it by early next week. 

3. Patience is still my weakness. I made a couple trade mistakes on Monday. I rolled way too early for the 4040 SP. It could have been OTM by the end of the day. 

4. I must calculate the options' values in Delta, Theta, and Gamma instead of feeling them.